Visiting the City

St. Petersburg - "The Sunshine City"

St. Petersburg welcomes you to enjoy one of Florida's most popular destinations, from the city's vibrant downtown filled with museums, art galleries, shopping and excellent dining to the city's seven miles of waterfront parks or snowy white sandy beaches - including Fort DeSoto Park, one of the nation's top ranked beaches.

Waterfront244 miles of shoreline along Tampa Bay, Boca Ciega Bay, the Gulf of Mexico and intra coastal waterways. Largest municipal marina in the southeast with 610 boat slips. Nine boat ramp locations, open year round. Ft. De Soto Park, one of the nation"s top ranked beaches.

SunshineAverage temperature - 73.7 degrees. Average days of sunshine per year - 361. The "Sunshine City" holds a Guinness World Record for logging the most consecutive days of sunshine - a stretch lasting 768 days that began in 1967.

Form of GovernmentSt. Petersburg operates under the strong mayor form of government - a system that combines the strong political leadership of a mayor with an elected city council. The mayor is responsible for running the daily affairs of the city, the City Council has a chair and a vice chair and must approve city policies, city budget and the mayor's choices for city administrator and city attorney.

Parks137 parks on approximately 2,300 acres of public land dedicated to parks and recreation, including a seven mile preserved downtown waterfront. Unique parks include the 245-acre Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, the botanical attraction Sunken Gardens, Treasure Island Beach, and the historic Weedon Island Preserve. The Pinellas Trail, a 37-mile hiking/biking trail, connects St. Petersburg with central and north Pinellas County-the longest urban linear trail in the Eastern U.S.

Famous FirstsSt. Petersburg is the birthplace of scheduled aviation with the flight of the Benoist Airboat and the birthplace of Major League Baseball Spring Training, both in 1914.

RecordsSt. Petersburg"s Water Reclamation System is not only the first to be built in the U.S., it remains one of the largest in the world. The city"s innovative system provides more than 20 million gallons a day (annual average) to 10,483 customers for lawn irrigation. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge, at 4.1 miles across, is the largest cable suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere, rising 19 stories above Tampa Bay (at midpoint).